Decision Day is coming!

All of us who stand on the side of love are eagerly awaiting Decision Day. This Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, we expect the U.S. Supreme Court to release decisions on two major marriage equality cases: the so-called federal “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8.

I hope you will join me in honoring this day by attending one of nearly a hundred Decision Day events across the country. Click here to find details for an event in your community. If you live in the DC area, join Standing on the Side of Love staff and supporters on the steps of the Supreme Court.

Many Decision Day events will take place on the day the Supreme Court actually releases their decisions, which we will only know that morning. Keep an eye on the Standing on the Side of Love Facebook or Twitter feeds—we’ll share the news as soon as it is released.

As we interpret, process, and respond to these decisions, it is important for us to be together—to celebrate or commiserate, and to show our support for marriage equality to the larger community. Show your pride by donning your bright yellow Standing on the Side of Love t-shirts, banners, and signs.

In New York City, I will be gathering with Decision Day leaders, DOMA plaintiff Edie Windsor, and thousands more in front of Stonewall—the birthplace of the gay liberation and pride movement on its 44th anniversary week!

For me, Decision Day will be deeply meaningful for four reasons:

Since 2004, I have been volunteering as a passionate marriage equality advocate, basing my activism on the Unitarian Universalist principle of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. I served as a lead organizer for the UU Fellowship of Raleigh’s 33 phone banks against our country’s last anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment in North Carolina—which tragically passed on May 8, 2012.

Exactly a year later, I started a full-time job in NYC to advance the movement for marriage equality on a national level—including leading remote and in-person phone banks out of Times Square for state marriage campaigns, designing trainings on why marriage matters and how to share our stories, and helping organize Pride events and this Decision Day rally.

I am also an out gay woman who someday hopes to marry the woman I love.

I am originally from California and attended my first legal gay wedding in 2008 of my best friend from pre-school in our home town of Palos Verdes. I have been giving sermons at UU fellowships on Prop 8 for the past few years. I would love some news to update my sermons!

I hope you will be able to attend a Decision Day event in your community. Remember to take pictures of your Standing on the Side of Love presence and send them to love@uua.org.

Until then, here is hoping that the principles of love, equality, justice, and the inherent worth and dignity of all people—as signaled by who our government allows to marry—prevail in our Supreme Court.

In faith,

Tracy Hollister
Field Director
Marriage Equality USA

The message above went out on Monday, June 24, 2013 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

One Response to “Decision Day is coming!”

I very much admire your work, I have been an out Butch since I was 26 and have always fought the good fight. I eagerly await the decision and look forward to meeting you tonight as we join in our common struggle.